Hello again! Once again, I'll edit at a later date with photos.

After three full days in the high desert of New Mexico, i have some strong recommendations. Firstly, HYDRATE. Back home in the Philadelphia suburbs, I thought I drink a reasonable amount of water- 1.5-2 liters a day. I've discovered that's not enough. Keeping in mind I haven't just been wandering around town (yesterday was day one at Petroglyph National Monument), yesterday I put down over three liters, and this morning I'm still a little dehydrated. The air is so dry, a Philly boy like me tends to not notice that it's (1) a lot warmer than I think it is, and (2) that sweat is actually evaporating like it's supposed to, as opposed to clinging like it tends to in the humidity of the east coast. Also, I'm not sure if it's the altitude or what, but my legs are really taking a pounding. I thought That I'm in pretty good shape for what I'm doing, since my day job has me walking six miles a day, but my quads are jello.

If you're exerting yourself like I am, the obscene food portions you find in many restaurants is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you watch what you're eating. I've been finding that the New Mexican places are not actually that bad for you... lots of beans, lean protein, veg, and of course, CHILE! They're not kidding when they say that the official state question is' "Red or Green." Chile sauce goes on everything. So far, I haven't come across anything too overwhelming, even for people who don't do chiles like I do. I'll get more into food later.

Breakfast burrito from the restaurant at the hotel (Sheraton Uptown Albuquerque).

Clothing: light weight, wicking, and if you go to a place that has clothes labelled with sun protection numbers, pay attention. I haven't seen any clouds worth mentioning, and with the thinner air up here, the sun can be brutal. Also, if you're planning in checking out the natural or ancient man-made wonders around here, solid footwear is a must! Running shoes/open-toed sandals will not cut it.

Really happy I brought the Zamberlans with me.

Watch out for snakes (rattlers), scorpions, et cetera. This is no joke. I saw my first wild rattler yesterday. Just keep an eye out for shadowed pockets under or between rocks, as this is where snakes love to hide out during the day. I was also staying clear of odd holes in the sand (usually an inch to inch and a half in diameter from what I saw) because I really didn't want to know what dug them, and I have to assume that anything that lives in this kind of environment is pretty angry by nature. Just the flies swarming around me by the end of yesterday's hike were acting like they hadn't seen water in years.

Ok, this one is admittedly out of focus, but I did not want to be there long.

Finally, make sure you know where you're going, or at least have GPS with updated maps. I tried to go to the Volcanoes Day use area of Petroglyph National Monument yesterday, and drove right past it, as it wasn't clearly marked [edit- and National Park Service maps leave a lot to be desired]. This left me driving further through the desert than I intended, and left me on the edges of a pert of town I had not yet been to. If not for GPS, it would have taken me A LOT longer to get back to home base. At this point, it's time for me to check out, time to go hiking.

Greetings from New Mexico!

I will be editing this and the next couple posts to include photos... My laptop has decided to stop functioning fully. This is the first time I've tried to post from my iPad, so we'll see how this goes.

As I mentioned before, this Philly boy has left the east coast for the first time in an embarrassingly long time for a photography trip. I spent a good portion of yesterday driving around Albuquerque trying to find a decent view for this evening's annular solar eclipse, and the latter portion of the day catching up with family that live out here.

When I got back to the hotel, I put in for a 3 AM (!!!) wakeup call, to try to get far enough out of town to shoot the particularly bright flyover of the International Space Station. That little trip was a total bust. All I can say is NEVER try to use unfamiliar equipment in total darkness. Due to the short duration of the flyover (roughly 6 minutes), there is very little time to correct any error in composition, exposure, etc. My problem (entirely my own fault) was that in the center of the Nikon MC-36 programmable shutter release cable/intervalometer is a four directional touchpad- think the digital pad on a game console controller- with a button in the center. In my rush to get the shot in total darkness, I didn't realize that the center button is not the shutter release button where I would have put it. It was awesome to watch, though. I'll have to make another attempt at that one at a later date, and also write about how to find out the details of when it will be visible.

This evening's shoot should be interesting. An annular eclipse is much like any other solar eclipse in that the earth's moon falls between the earth and the sun. This type is different from a total eclipse in that while the moon is centered over the sun, it is too far away from the earth to totally block it, leaving an annulus (ring) still visible. I've brought far too many toys with me, leaving a great debate. Do I go with my questionable quality Sigma 300mm lens on my D300, giving me an effective focal length of 450mm; or do I use my 80-200 on the rental D800 with its 36Mp, which will let me crop out a good portion of the field and still have a pretty good size file?

I should also mention that you should NEVER point your camera (much like your own eyes) directly at the sun with no filtration. After a couple hours online, I found a company in Arizona called Thousand Oaks Optical that manufactures astronomical filters of all kinds, including the screw on type needed for your camera.

On a totally separate note, I'm loving the food out here; and the official state question, "red or green." It seems that everything comes smothered in chile "sauce," being some concoction of chopped or pureed red or green chiles. I've even heard that you can get chile burgers at McDonald's, which I may have to check out. I've just discovered that for some reason (lack of flash?) that I can't upload photos using my iPad, so I'll have to post those later.